ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA. 269 



Gaeta, on December 10. This account was accompanied by the 

 platinum point of the lightning conductor which received the stroke, 

 and a bit of melted copper from the rod of the same conductor. The 

 storm of the 10th was chiefly confined to the north-west part of the 

 heavens. At 1.30 P.M. the electric fluid struck the conductor of 

 the mainmast, accompanied by a detonation equal to that of a dis- 

 charge of artillery. A portion of the platinum point was melted, 

 and the rest broken off from the rod. Curiously enough, the base 

 of this platinum point, in the shape of a cone, had remained un- 

 injured, with the screw by which it had been fixed by the rod ; 

 while the remaining extremity of the rod from where the screw had 

 been snapped off, was melted ! The conductors of the fore and 

 mizenmasts had received no injury ; but a sergeant, who was seated 

 near the funnel of the engine, at a distance of 19 feet from the main- 

 mast, felt such a violent shock that he thought he had been struck 

 by some Sardinian projectile, which had fallen on board by accident. 

 He thought that he felt blood trickling from the wound, and after 

 being examined, could scarcely be persuaded that he had not been 

 wounded. At the foot of the mainmast, a bluish flame, 1\ feet in 

 length, was noticed, but it immediately disappeared. The pocket- 

 knife of one of the sailors was strongly magnetized, as were also 

 some steel-pens in the officers' rooms. 



SHOWER OF ICE. 



Captain Blakiston, in a letter to General Sabine, which has 

 been communicated to the Royal Society, dated H.M.S. Simoon, 

 Singapore, 22nd of February, I860, gives an interesting account of 

 a Shower of Ice which fell upon the ship. He says: — "On the 

 14th of January, when two days out from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 about 300 miles S.S.E. of it, in latitude 38° 53' S., longitude 

 20° 45' E., we encountered a heavy squall, with rain, at 10 a.m., last- 

 ing one hour, the wind shifting suddenly from east to north (true). 

 During the squall there were three vivid flashes of lightning, one of 

 which was very close to the ship, and at the same time a shower of 

 ice fell, which lasted about three minutes. It was not hail, but 

 irregular-shaped pieces of solid ice, of different dimensions, up to 

 the sizeofhalfa brick. The squall was so heavy that the topsails 

 were obliged to be let go. There appears to have been no previous 

 indication of this squall, for the barometer at 6 P.M. on the two 

 previous days had been at 30 "00, the thermometer 70°. At 8 A.M. 

 on the 14th the barometer marked 29 - 82, the thermometer 70°. At 

 10 A.M., the time of the squall, 29'8G, the thermometer 70° ; and at 

 1 P.M., when the weather had cleared, wind north (true) 29"70', 

 thermometer 69° ; after which it fell slowly and steadily during the 

 remainder of the day and following night. As to the size of the 

 pieces of ice which fell, two, which were weighed after having melted 

 considerably, were 3.]* and 5 ounces respectively ; while I had one 

 piece given me, a good quarter of an hour alter the squall, which 

 would only just go into an ordinary tumbler ; and one or two persons 

 depose to having seen pieces the size of a brick. On examining the 



